I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!
Saint Philip of...
@ The Israeli Museum of Art and Antics
Cross Bones Graveyard, Southwark, London. Final resting place of the ‘outcast dead’. For more info see here…
(Source: xmorbidcuriosityx)
The Strangest Tradition of the Victorian Era: Post-Mortem Photography
After the invention of daguerrotype, the memorializing habits of people have changed: they’ve chosen the cheap, higher quality photographs instead of expensive and not so lifelike paintings. Painting dead people was common for centuries, so it’s no surprise that, in the Victorian Era, post-mortem photos also came into fashion. Here are some of the strangest ones.
(Source: io9)
Richard IIIs fans say a simple stone to mark his burial place is not fit for a king
After his last resting place beneath a council car park, anything would be an improvement for Richard III.
But following one row over whether his remains should be reburied in Leicester or York, a new dispute emerged yesterday over how grand the tomb should be.
Despite calls for an elaborate memorial, it seems the last Plantagenet king will have to make do with something much more simple within Leicester Cathedral.
The cathedral’s design brief specifies a preference for ‘a place of simple dignity’ – an engraved memorial stone.
It informs architects the church authorities would like to ‘mark the place of burial with a ledger stone’ which sits flat on the floor, possibly with a ‘decorative border’.
Anything more grandiose would be ‘disproportionate’.
The new monument will be placed on the spot where a memorial stone commemorating the 15th century king currently sits within the chancel.
‘While the remains of an English king are of historical significance, it should not be forgotten that Richard demonstrated both the honourable and dishonourable characteristics of human beings,’ the brief states.
‘Opportunities for prayer and reflection should focus on themes of sin and redemption, justice and peace.’
Read more here.
This weekend the Salem Witch Trials Memorial was rededicated, 20 years after its installation and after a year of renovation and fortification by its original mason. The Memorial remains the only Witch-trial-related initiative that I can bear in Salem, and the ceremony marking its re-dedication was, for the most part, simple and respectful, just like the Memorial itself. Descendants of the 20 victims were present, and they placed flowers and rosemary (for remembrance) on their ancestors’ symbolic “graves”, granite benches marked with their names and dates of death built into an encompassing granite dry wall. As you enter the green rectangular courtyard that is the Memorial, surrounded by the colonial gravestones of the Old Burying Point outside of its perimeter, you can read the victims’ protestations of innocence, which are carved on paving stones. Just like the actual words that were uttered, they are cut off , by the Memorial walls.
Full article here.
Quick Response codes can be scanned by smartphones to open up online biographies of the person who has died.
Traditional graveyards are being transformed through technology with interactive headstones providing a revolutionary way for people to remember loved ones.
Quick Response (QR) codes on gravestones can be scanned by smartphones to open up online biographies of the dead person.
The related webpage can show profiles of the person, pictures, videos and tributes from family and friends.
The funeral directors Chester Pearce of Poole, Dorset, which is using the technology, said the QR barcodes enabled visitors to learn all about the person buried, rather than being limited to a name, age and date of birth and death.
Those given access to the website can also add tributes of their own.
The QR codes can also be put on memorials and tribute plaques on benches, said Chester Pearce’s managing director, Stephen Nimmo.
The £300 codes are etched on to a small granite or metal square before being embedded or glued on to a gravestone.
One of the first customers in Poole to use the technology is Gill Tuttiett, 53, whose husband, Timothy, died from heart failure in November, aged 55.
“Tim was quite outward-going and game for anything,” she said. “I think this is the way forward and Tim would have wanted that, and it’s making a process that’s hard possibly easier.” It would also be useful for someone trying to create family trees in the future, she said.
Nimmo said that he got the idea after visiting the Kremlin Wall necropolis in Moscow and realising he knew so much about the people buried there.
“People often wander around cemeteries and look at gravestones and wonder who that person was. By using the QR codes they can find out all they need to know”.
Full story here.
The Johnny Cash Project
I have clearly been living under a rock, as I have only just stumbled across this. And what is ‘this’? An international collaborative art project that YOU can be a part of!
Through this interactive website, participants may draw their own portrait of Johnny Cash to be integrated into a collective whole. As people all over the world contribute, the project will continue to evolve and grow, one frame at a time.
Submit your drawing to become a part of the new music video for the song ‘Ain’t No Grave’. Strung together and relayed in sequence your art, paired with Johnny’s haunting song, will become a living, moving and ever changing portrait of the legendary Man in Black.
Such a beautiful idea and the video thus far is just simply stunning. Check it out now!
Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists’ right to safe travel.
The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003. Currently there are over 500 ghost bikes that have since appeared in over 180 locations throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again — but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed.
Ever seen a white bike chained to a railing and wondered what that was all about? It’s a ghost bike and this great website explains all.
A devoted farmer created this touching heart-shaped meadow as a tribute to his late wife - by planting thousands of oak trees.
Dedicated Winston Howes, 70, spent a week planting each oak sapling after his wife of 33 years Janet died suddenly 17 years ago.
He laid out the fledgling trees in a six-acre field but left a perfect heart shape in the middle - with the point facing in the direction of her childhood home.
The labour of love has now blossomed into a mature meadow - a peaceful oasis where Winston can sit and remember his wife of 33 years.
His meadow cannot be seen from the road and has remained a family secret until a hot air balloonist took this photograph from the air.
So sad and yet so beautiful at the same time! *sniff*
Praise the Lord and Pass the Cremated Remains Filled Ammunition…
So yeah. I had heard about people loading ammunition with human cremated remains and then shooting the ammo but I did not know, until this week, that a company would do it for you.
And based on the reaction of my British friends (I live in England), many people still do not believe it is possible. And/or, the loading of live gun ammunition with human cremated remains is a distinctly American form of memorialization. Not unlike spelling memorialization with a ‘z’ instead of an ‘s’.
Take that Red Coats!
But I digress.
Here at the Death Reference Desk we believe in presenting the full monty when it comes to contemporary forms of postmortem memorials. So a company such as Holy Smoke is due some respect for combining two of America’s great past times: shooting bullets and capitalism. Not necessarily in that order.
But lo, what might you receive when purchasing Holy Smoke’s ammo? Well, their website explains it all…
Click the ammo for the full article!
Museums used to be a celebration of human achievement. Now they merely peddle misery. Tiffany Jenkins asks why…
E-Tomb Memorialises the Dead with Social Networking
Memorializing the deceased with Facebook mausoleums may offer some digital consolation to bereaved friends and family, but a new product concept called the ‘E-Tomb’ has taken the idea of post-mortem social networking to an entirely new (and creepily literal) level.
Designed by Huang Jianbo, Zhao Ting, Wang Yushan, Ran Xiangfei and Mo Ran, the E-Tomb sort of looks like a cross between a tombstone and an external hard-drive — and, essentially, that’s what it is. Solar panels at the top of the tombstone power the device’s storage mechanism, which holds all of the blogs, Facebook posts, photos and videos that the grave’s occupant ever posted online.
All this information is accessible via a cross-shaped Bluetooth key on the face of the headstone, allowing friends and family to revisit the deceased’s archived online material from their mobile phones, and post their own personal anecdotes to the hard drive. It may sound strange to bury someone with their archived online history, but, for people who spend just about every waking moment online, it sort of makes sense. Excuse us as we go rewrite our wills.
Memorial dedicated to witch-hunt victims…
Norway’s Queen Sonja recently travelled to the village of Vardoe to officially inaugurate a memorial to women and men unjustly burned at the stake for witchcraft in the 17th century. Between 1598 and 1692, some 135 people were accused of being witches - including children - with 91 people killed in Vardoe alone.
The memorial, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, consists of a long hall lined with plaques of 77 women and 14 men accused of heresy or collusion with the devil. US artist Louise Bourgeois has also created an artwork upon the site where, according to legend, the accused were burned at the stake.
Clicking the photo takes you to more images of the memorial, although the site is in Norwegian!
(Source: windsorstar.com)
